5 Key success factors for E-Commerce Business

Ask yourself! Why do you buy a product from a particular website? What are the factors which motivate you to choose that site and not others?

That answer is what you’re looking for your own e-store success. They are the key factors which will help your e-store to stands higher in crowd and sell more.

1. Branding

Do you have a ‘thing’ for brands? Do you like Prada or Gucci? Do you like Starbucks?

A brand is a belief and the most powerful thing. The reason why you decide to pay higher price without any problem.

So think, how do you brand your business? What are the current methods for brand building? Are they really helpful? Are they costing much? Can you measure the ROI (return-on-investment)? Is it scalable process?

If you’re answers have more ‘No’ than ‘yes’, then it’s time to tune your Brand-Building method.

Now, How can you build a strong brand if you’re totally new?

These are the effective ways to build a stronger brand using Internet for a new business.

Unique Design: Good enough to hold them! If you’re able to amaze them, you can sell even more. Get a Logo and designed website. It doesn’t cost you much if you use service like Elance.

Utilize Social Networks: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn presence are very helpful here. They got some very innovative products (Twitter Promoted, Facebook Ads etc) to promote a brand. Spend some time to discover the ‘best practices’.

Run multiple Display Advertising Campaigns: Let them remember your name and what you do.

Participate in conversation and Q&A sites and answer every questions about your brand

Showcase your Testimonials, Reviews and feedback across the site and networks

2. USP

USP stands for Unique Selling Proposition. How do you differentiate your business from others? What are the product differentiators?

A buyer usually spends a good time on research. He searches for

Price

Quality

Deals

Reviews etc

So How do you differentiate your products? Is it price, quality, customer support, any guaranty (Money Back, warranty etc.) or payment flexibilities?

When you find your USPs, showcase them everywhere. It’ll help buyers to make decisions.

3. Store Experience

A good store experience is a must have for Ecommerce success. If your cart or design sucks, nothing is going to help to convert better.

Make your store as much as user-friendly you can. Get a good design, speed-up the store (1 second delay in site speed may decrease conversion rate by 7%), smooth the Cart and get higher conversion rate. A good Ecommerce platform or software is a necessity.

Offer number of features but don’t confuse them with lot of options. Simplicity is also necessary.

4. Customer Retention

A business is never going to be a success without the army of Loyal Customers. Customer retention is helpful to get more sales and to build your brand. A loyal customer not only buys from you but he also spreads the good words in his network.

Also you’ve to apply less effort to sell something to existing customers again. They’ve already used the product and they won’t be affected by FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubts).

Ask for regular advice (design or feature) using newsletters, blogs or surveys. Thus they’ll be connected and feel like a part of the business and not only a proposition/asset.

5. Multi-Channel Marketing

There are opportunities lying everywhere in Internet. Some businesses are making millions from Facebook. Some businesses are killing their competition with Search Engine Marketing.

The mantra is to spread your reach everywhere. It’s not that hard with Internet.

Let me ask you something. How do you promote your business? What are the current quality traffic sources? If you can only list 2 or 3 traffic sources, be ready for sudden loss. 🙂

If you’re totally depended on search engines, a negative change in ranking algorithm can affect your whole business. If you rely on Ads for traffic, their policy change can bring you to a danger situation.

An ideal marketing strategy should focus on no. of marketing channels. You can use Email Marketing, SEM, Affiliate Marketing, Referral Marketing, Social Media and offline campaigns to diversify your reach.

Thus you’re not dependent on a single source and they’ll also bring you regular amount of buyers. All it needs good and specified targeting and regular data-driven optimization.

Now, it’s time for your participation. What are the success factors behind your business? How to do you sell more? Please share!

Do you need some help for your store? Contact me and let’s work together.

Thanks Ankit, for the super information. We offer an e-commerce business that provides an online shop full of exceptional organic body products. I am always reading the latest and greatest news, to ensure we are offering our business owners exactly what they want and need to create a sustainable income from home. Angie Levine, CMO Essanté Organics.